Runner's Delight at Speedcon
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(0) Index
(1) Introduction
(1.1) What is this thing?
(1.2) About coop demos
(2) The demos
(2.1) Installation
(2.2) Running the demos
(2.3) Solving playback problems
(3) More details about the demos
(3.1) Timing
(3.2) How the run was recorded
(3.3) How the run was made into a movie
(4) Statistics
(5) Credits and contact info
(5.1) Credits
(5.2) Utilities used
(5.3) Contact info
(5.4) The photos
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(1) Introduction
(1.1) What is this thing?
Runner's Delight at Speedcon is a speed-run of Runner's Delight, a custom-made
mission pack for Quake. We go through the levels as fast as possible on Easy
skill. This project is special for the QdQ team in several ways.
Firstly, unlike most of our releases, the running is undertaken by two
players in co-operative mode. The players work together and share the tasks
needed to reach the exit so that the level can be completed more quickly than
in single player mode. This leads to new, previously impossible, routes and
even makes completely new types of tricks possible. We also refilmed the demos,
so you can choose between three views of each run: Both players, and the recam.
Secondly, the demos take place not in the normal Quake maps, but in a mission
pack specially designed for speed-running. In 1999, Jesse van Dijk released a
set of maps that were built not only for normal Quake playing but with special
consideration for speed-running. The mission pack is available on the Runner's
Delight home page .
Thirdly, and lastly, the circumstances of the recordings are special. Since its
inception, the QdQ team has been an "online" group of people from all over the
world, communicating almost exclusively via the Internet. In June 2000, however,
some of us finally got to meet each other in person. You can imagine that this
was a very special event to us. Fourteen speed-runners from various parts of
Europe, and even one from the USA, came together at Tampere, Finland. The
meeting, dubbed Speedcon, was graciously hosted by Ilkka Kurkela.
All demos for this project were recorded while we were together at Tampere,
and they serve as a lasting memory to that event. This means another specialty:
While we normally take upwards of several months for a project, this one was
recorded within two days. As a consequence, some demos are not quite up to the
usual QdQ standard; however, we certainly think they're good and entertaining
enough to release!
The title of the project can be read in two different ways: It means "Runner's
Delight was present at Speedcon" and "Runners find delight at Speedcon" at the
same time.
(1.2) About coop demos
Since this is, together with QddQ, the first coop project from QdQ, some
explanations are due. The demos are recorded by two players, a "server" and
a "client". The server loads the map and usually pauses the game to wait for
the client. The client connects to the server's machine. When the client has
entered the game, the server can unpause and the action begins.
In case you want to try some coop-recording yourself, the necessary console
commands are as follows:
On the server: "disconnect;record ;wait;pause"
On the client: "disconnect;record ;connect "
Binding the commands to a function key is recommended.
Having two players available opens a new bag of speed-running tricks. First,
players can share the work; actions which are necessary to leave the level
can be distributed between the players, leading to faster times. This is
especially useful with button-operated doors; one player presses the button
while the other waits at the door.
Another category of new tricks are boosts: One player can shoot the other,
giving him additional velocity. This leads to interesting new shortcuts.
Grenade jumps from the other player's grenade give twice the boost that
your own grenades cause, leading to longer or higher jumps.
However, these possiblities would be useless if the players would end up
killing each other. Therefore, we make use of the "teamplay" console variable.
When teamplay is set to 1, players can shoot each other without damage to the
other's health (damage to armor remains the same), provided they wear the same
colored pants. A side-effect of this is that a player is not only unable to
hurt his partner but also himself; rocket and grenade jumps are practically
for free.
(2) The demos
(2.1) Installation
First you need to find your main Quake directory. This probably has the name
"Quake" and will contain such items as your Quake executable programs (such
as quake.exe, or winquake.exe, or glquake.exe...) and your Id1 subdirectory.
(Mac users may be more used to the term "folder" than directory.)
Depending on which download you chose, the instructions differ slightly:
* If you chose the complete download (levels+demos):
You should make a subdirectory of the aforementioned main directory. Give
it the name "rde". In DOS, you can do this by changing to your main Quake
directory and then typing "md rde" at the prompt. Extract the contents of
your download into this directory.
* If you already have RDE and downloaded just the demos (zip or dz format):
Runner's Delight should be installed in a subdirectory of your main Quake
directory called "rde". Extract the contents of your download into this
directory, no existing file should be overwritten.
(2.2) Running the demos
* If you're a DOS/Windows user
To run the demos, start the rdsc.bat file provided in your RDE directory.
This wlll ask you which Quake executable to use and start the movie with
all the right settings. After running, it cleans up the directory again so
that the presence of the movie does not interfere with your normal game of
Runner's Delight.
* If you use a different operation system:
The speed-run is set up so that you can use it alongside the normal RDE pack.
To start the movie, rename the rdsc.pak file into pak1.pak, then start Quake
with the "-game rde" parameter. After running the movie, you should rename
the pak back so that you can play the RDE levels if you wish.
The demos are played from a menu interface, so that you can choose to play
the whole mission pack, or individual levels. Moreover, you can choose to watch
the movie version, either player, or both players' view in alternating order.
Using the menu should be mostly self-explanatory. There are just a few
additional things you should know about using it.
Whilst playing a demo, you can press F10 to stop and return to the menu.
If you are playing the whole run sequence of levels, then you can press F9 to
advance to the next demo.
(2.3) Solving playback problems
Some versions of Quake have some problems playing back long demos. We have
used every trick and hack we know to try to solve these problems, but it is
possible some will have slipped through for your Quake version. If so, please
tell us so we can fix the bug. But in any case, any errors shouldn't ruin your
enjoyment of the movie. You can use the menu interface to play it
the whole pack at a time, or to play any individual level.
(3) More details about the demo
(3.1) Timing
Just a quick explanation of the timing rules in this project. We recorded
every demo separately and then connected them together, adding up the times
to a total of 3:29. Unlike original Quake, the times for the start level
(which is traversed before every "real" level) fully count towards the fial
time.
(3.2) How the run was recorded
We recorded each demo separately, on skill 0 (Easy), of course without any
cheating. To start with the correct stats we ended the previous level with,
we used a QuakeC patch that allowed us to set the statistics we started with.
RDE allows you to play the first four levels in any order, and we made use
of that freedom. We first go to rd1m3, then to rd1m2, rd1m4, and then to rd1m1.
Having collected the four runes from those levels, we proceed to the final
level. The order of the levels has an effect on the final time, good advance
planning was required to ensure that both players had the resources they needed
at every point.
As explained above, we used a setting of "teamplay 1" as is usual with coop
speedrun demos.
(3.3) How the run was made into a movie
After the demos were recorded, we decided to turn them into a little "film"
for additional entertainment value. That is, using the program Remaic
, we inserted a "camera" into the demos
that gives you another perspective of the two players. Filming a coop demo
is a somewhat different challenge than filming a single player demo since
sometimes the camera has to focus on one player who's doing something
important while ignoring the other player.
We made use of some player models from the Deathmatch Essentials pack to
show the weapons the players are carrying.
Moreover, we added a fictitous introduction sequence to establish our Really
Dumb Excuse for a storyline :) and a trick demo on the sphere map (this is
not normally included in the playing of RDE, hence the time is not included
in the count).
The player perspective demos are basically the original recordings, except
for the obvious editing needed to make them play within the menu.
(4) Statistics
All speedrun demos were recorded by Will Marsh and Ilkka Kurkela
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Level Map Time
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The Edge of Chaos (1) RDSTART 0:24
Summa Celeritate RD1M3 0:29
The Edge of Chaos (2) RDSTART 0:05
Second Iteration RD1M2 0:21
The Edge of Chaos (3) RDSTART 0:05
Time is the Fire RD1M4 0:32
The Edge of Chaos (4) RDSTART 0:04
Quadrant Six RD1M1 0:20
The Edge of Chaos (5) RDSTART 0:06
Fabric of Space RDEND 1:03
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Runner's Delight 3:29
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(5) Credits and contact info
(5.1) Credits
Ilkka Kurkela Running, Hosting
Will Marsh Running, Recamming
Jesse van Dijk Levels, Recamming
Fabian Kollakowski Recamming
Stefan Schwoon Recamming, Production
Robert Axelsson Additional demos
Rickard Axelsson Additional demos
Alexander Lindgren Additional demos
(5.2) Utilities used
The utilities we used included:
LMPC by Uwe Girlich for decompiling
and recompiling demos so we could use the convenient LS format. Also Uwe's
DEM specs were very useful for us in creating our own tools.
Some in-house utilities; QdQstats
DemoRelise (unreleased) to make demos that fit into a continuous run, and
Demtool for various editing jobs.
Remaic for filming the demos.
The batch file for running RDSC was written by Anthony Bailey.
The player-with-weapon models are taken from the Deathmatch Essentials mod
by Razor Entertainment. The group seems no longer to exist, but you can get
a copy of the mod from the QdQ downloads page.
(5.3) Contact info
For QdQ news and future projects check our page at
.
The Speedcon 2000 home page is at
.
Also, you may want to check out the Runner's Delight home page at
.
For questions and comments (even if you just want to say you liked the
demo), email the QdQ team at , or write directly
to the individual members.
(5.4) The photos
In addition to the demos, your download contains two photos taken at Speedcon.
nerds.jpg is a group photo of most participants, namely (from left to right)
Fabian Kollakowski, Marlo Galinski, Janne Kallomäki, Will Marsh, Ingmar Pörner,
Stefan Schwoon, Nolan Pflug, Juho-Jussi Renvall, Anthony Bailey, Ilkka Kurkela,
Jesse van Dijk. Also present at Speedcon (but not on the photo) were Matti
Kaipila, Juho Larvi, and Alexander Osipov.
second.jpg shows the two protagonists of the show, Ilkka Kurkela and Will Marsh
while taking a short break from running.
You can find more information, demos, and more pictures of the event, at the
Speedcon home page: .
Enjoy Runner's Delight at Speedcon!